PAYSON — At least one residential developer is changing his plans to meet current market conditions.
For builder Rick Salisbury, that means cutting planned attached homes as consumers opt for single-family homes.
"If the product would sell, I'd leave it," Salisbury told the Payson City Council and Planning Commission on Wednesday during a joint brainstorming of the two bodies. "I can't sell them."
As the economy has worsened, prices have come down on single-family homes, making them the preferred choice for homebuyers, he said.
Salisbury has an approved project, Springside Meadows, of 411 homes with five neighborhoods on Payson's south end. Now, he wants to change it to 347 homes, leaving off planned townhomes. That would mean eliminating some of the amenities he agreed to build to get the higher density.
The City Council gave final plat approval for the first 13 homes in the subdivision.
The homebuilder also is negotiating with developer Otto Belvedere for another approved subdivision, again on Payson's south end, north of 1400 South and between 1000 West and Turf Farm Road. The 98-home subdivision, Heritage Village, was approved as an age-restricted community for buyers over 55 and included twin homes, along with an already built clubhouse.
Before Salisbury will buy it, he wants the 34 attached homes eliminated, along with some of the common area, in favor of single-family homes. That means the number of homes built may be reduced, Belvedere said.
Still another project is targeting renters, rather than buyers.
Rep. Mike Morley, R-Spanish Fork, along with builders Ed Ballard and Blaine Ballard, want to take more than half of a 20-acre commercial subdivision approved in 2005 for an apartment complex. The initial plan then was to include apartments on the back end of the site, but they were eliminated when the council favored setting aside land for more commercial development.
The market has changed, and commercial interests are hesitating to come in unless Payson can provide ample workers.
"The commercial component is dead now," Morley said.
Apartments would draw young people who can't qualify to buy now and provide an employee base for future business, he said. His first phase would total 120 apartments.
Morley cited a feasibility study by Pinnacle Real Estate Management Co. that found Payson lacking in affordable housing. Bills dubbed it "work-force housing."
"We'll not make it a slumlord situation," Morley said.
The site is on the west side of I-15 near the north interchange and now includes a hotel pad and plans for a large commercial building. However, Councilman Brad Daley said he would rather see a continuation of Payson's downtown of smaller mom-and-pop shops on the front acreage of the site.
A FrontRunner commuter-rail station is planned near the site, but that could change, Councilman Brent Grotegut said.
e-mail: rodger@desnews.com